Your favorite NYC Italian neighborhoods...

Might be a fun topic to discuss. I'll start:

1. Spaghetti Park, Corona. Was riding around there last week. Gotta love the Lemon Ice King. Sittin in the park while the old timers playin bocci and listening to Sinatra. Still a cool place to check out in the summer. Everyone is out. Italian flags everywhere. And it is way out there so no tourists at all.

Spaghetti park is cool. Ive always liked HB the best tho.

Bensonhurst and dyker heights any good?

Dinning at the table for 2 in the window of Angelos' in Little Italy ;-)

I guess we're talking about "all time" favorites?

Because even though Spaghetti Park is a great place and A LOT of Italian Americans DO hang out there this time of year, Corona is hardly predominantly Italian as a whole anymore. And for that matter, Mulberry Street isn't Italian at all anymore, except for the restaurants and cafes (although Angelo's IS still one of my favorite restaurants in the entire city).

So that being said, I'll just go with my old neighbnorhood. Belmont, The Bronx. Growing up on 187th Street in the '60s and '70s was magic. Today only the stores and restaurants remain Italian, but it's still a great place to go for dinner and to do your shopping.

The area was heavily Albanian for awhile, but even the Albanians have started to move to the suburbs. The area is mostly mixed Latino today. Just to give you an idea, Mount Carmel Church (made famous in "A Bronx Tale") is down to one Italian mass a week. They have masses in Spanish every day.

Syracuse
Little Italy - on the city's North Side

Was sad to hear that Ponte's in Tribeca has closed.

where do you live in jc lefty? the heights?

I lived near the general as a kid, near Arthur Ave in like the mid-90s. I remember having some Albanian neighbors, they were particularly crazy from what I remember.

And what my relatives now describe as a numbers racket in a small after-hours club across the street. Run by Italians or Albanians I just don't know

But yeah So my votes goes to AA area too hehe